Before You Reach A Verdict, Read: Norman DeWitt’s “Epicurus And His Philosophy”

If you wanted to get an unbiased view of Obama would you ask a Republican? If you wanted an unbiased view of Trump would you ask a Democrat? If you are studying Epicurus, you don’t want to make a similar mistake. Epicurus has been reviled for 2000 years by leaders of Judaism, Christianity, and Academia alike, and Epicurean philosophy is more explosive to professional religionists and conventional philosophers than a capitalist is to a communist. In the English-speaking world there has been one classical authority who devoted his professional career to reconstructing a picture of Epicurean philosophy as it was likely taught by Epicurus himself. That man was Norman Dewitt, his book was “Epicurus and His Philosophy,” and if you are an English-only reader who has formed your opinion of Epicurus without reading that book, then you are no
better off than a jury on a criminal case which has heard only the prosecution and nothing from the defendant.

Find Norman DeWitt’s book at your local library or online, and make sure you have both sides of the story of Epicurus And His Philosophy. In the meantime, the introductory essay which DeWitt wrote seven years before “Epicurus And His Philosophy” can be found here: http://newepicurean.com/philos…picurus-by-norman-dewitt/